Washington — The Senate on Friday failed to pass a massive spending package to fully fund the government through September before a midnight deadline to avert a partial government shutdown, though it’s expected to vote on final passage within hours after a last-minute deal.
Shortly before midnight, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, announced the upper chamber had finally reached an agreement on amendment votes that would allow them to expedite the bill’s passage. Republicans demanded votes on amendments in exchange for speeding up the process. Without an agreement, the soonest the Senate would have been able to vote is Sunday.
“It’s been a very long and difficult day. But we have just reached an agreement to complete the job of funding the government,” Schumer said.
The missed deadline was not expected to have any effect on government operations. The Office of Management and Budget directed agencies to cease shutdown preparations “because there is a high degree of confidence that Congress will imminently pass” the funding package, the White House said, adding that President Biden would sign it Saturday.
The $1.2 trillion package, which was unveiled early Thursday, cleared the House on Friday morning in a vote of 286 to 134. The package wraps six spending bills into one to fund about three-quarters of the government until the end of the fiscal year.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, criticized Republicans for stalling and noted that if any amendments did pass, the amended package would be sent back to the House for approval, which would prolong a partial shutdown because House lawmakers have already left Washington for a two-week recess.
“We’ve made a very reasonable proposal to Sen. Schumer, and he’s rejected it,” Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, said. “No one can blame this one on us.”
The package’s passage through both chambers would allow Congress to shift its focus to other priorities, including next year’s spending bills that need to be signed into law by October and foreign aid to U.S. allies that has been in limbo for months.
The bipartisan compromise has also complicated House Speaker Mike Johnson’s position in leadership. The agreement reached between the Louisiana Republican and the Senate’s Democratic leadership to fund the government was opposed by a majority of his conference and puts him at risk of being ousted by a conservative revolt.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, teased a possible no-confidence vote in Johnson, filing a motion to vacate that the House could be forced to consider after it returns from recess. The motion is the same maneuver that a handful of Republicans used to remove Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California from the speakership in October amid GOP divisions about how to handle spending.
“It’s time for our conference to choose a new speaker,” Greene said after the House vote.
The spending deal
Unable to pass the dozen annual appropriations bills that fund the federal government, lawmakers have repeatedly relied on short-term funding extensions to keep the government operating since October.
They were finally able to break the logjam this month, splitting up the bills into two packages. But the rollout of the second package was delayed until early Thursday by disputes over funding for the Department of Homeland Security.
Johnson thus waived a self-imposed 72-hour rule that gives lawmakers time to read legislation before a vote in order to get it across the finish line and send it to the Senate, giving the upper chamber just hours before the clock strikes midnight.
Republicans and Democrats both claimed victories in the package.
Democrats touted funding for child care and education programs, medical research, mental health care and an extension of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, an initiative known as PEPFAR that is credited with saving 25 million lives worldwide.
Republicans highlighted funding for Border Patrol agents and more detention beds, as well as a ban on funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, the main humanitarian agency operating in Gaza, through March 2025.
The bill also includes several conservative policy wins. It prevents the federal government from banning gas stoves, puts restrictions on which flags can be flown over U.S. diplomatic facilities and maintains a provision banning federal funds from covering abortion services.
Facing criticism from conservatives, who deemed the bill a failure, Johnson said the package “represents the best achievable outcome in a divided government.”
Republican Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee said the bill’s passage puts the GOP majority at risk.
“Some will say that the Republicans are in the majority in the House, but it’s clear that the Democrats own the speaker’s gavel,” Ogles said, adding that it’s passage “will likely determine who controls the House of Representatives, and this bill will most certainly determine who the next speaker is.”
— Alan He and Ellis Kim contributed reporting.